It's been a few weeks, and I have some exciting news! We are moving back to Washington! We found out today that Matt is getting stationed there again! We are so very excited. The last time Matt saw Jack, he was only 2.5 weeks old...Jack has changed so much in the last 2.5 months! It will be wonderful to be together and start our lives as a family.These last few months have been a huge adjustment, and pretty hard. Raising a newborn on your own is difficult, it is lonely, and exhausting. My dad has been a HUGE help! Without him, I don't know how I would have made it through the last few months. I also want to thank my grandma for texting me everyday to make sure I was okay, and our moms, they are both so busy with their own schedules, but I know if I would have asked for their help, they would have gladly made the time. I'm so thankful that my days as a "single mom" are almost done. Like I said, it was hard (even with an easy baby!), but this experience has made me into a stronger woman, it taught to appreciate my husband beyond belief (not that I didn't before), and that I'm so much stronger than I ever imagined. I know pride is not a great thing, but I have to say, I'm pretty proud of myself. I have successfully taken care of my newborn, my puppy, and my home all on my own. At the end of every day, I feel accomplished, exhausted, but accomplished ;) Of course, I had the emotional support of my wonderful, loving, husband, and that made a world of a difference.


In other news, I have finally purchased my first cloth diapers! I'm excited to start using them,not only is it less expensive, BUT they are also better for the environment and more gentle on Jack's sensitive bum ;) I will start once we move and get settled into our new place up north.

I purchased 8 from babysteals.com- they were the bum cheeks minky diapers with organic bamboo inserts. I wish I would have bought more because it was a great deal, but didn't really think about it. I would like to buy at least 8 more inserts before I start exclusively cloth diapering.

I will also be using the rockin green laundry detergent too. It comes in unscented, which is perfect because since getting pregnant and having Jack, scented lotions/perfumes/shampoos/soaps give me a headache!

AND in Jack news- he is just a few days shy of 3 months old :/ no longer a newborn! He is getting so big! He smiles, giggles, splashes lots of water while in the bath tub, grabs for toys, and drools bucket loads ;)

weekend update.

Jack and I had a pretty good weekend... meanwhile back in Virginia Matt was stuck inside thanks to hurricane Irene! We are so glad he was kept safe and sound!

Friday we spent some time at Grandma Sue's playing in the pool with cousin Mason :)


Jack! doesn't he have the cutest smile :)


Mason! He has a pretty darn cute smile too!

This is the best I could get of the both of them together. It's funny though, in this one they are both trying to get their hands in their mouths and in another one I took they were both sticking out their tongues ;)


Kierska, sadly, Riley was at home.... I will take her next time...she is just too anxious in the car and tries to sit on my lap!




Jack also had his 2 month appointment last Monday! He is quite the little chunky baby :) He weighs 13.5 lbs and is 23 3/4 inches long! He is in the 85 percentile for weight and the 80th percentile for height!

Jack has been doing so many new things lately too. He is smiling all the time, giggling, sticking his hand in his mouth (sucking on it), sucking his thumb, sleeping 6+ hours a night (he only wakes up for about 5 minutes to eat and falls right back to sleep!), and he started playing with his tongue, like he is rolling it sideways. It has been so fun seeing him grow and start to interact with me, I love tickling him and seeing his reaction. His smile makes my heart swell up with joy! Tonight we played peek-a-boo and he had the best time! I just can't wait for Matt to see him again, It will be so nice when we can be together as a family!



Side note: Last week, I was also kind of a dummy. I lost my ID, and my debit card. Then I lost my credit card...which was actually in my shorts inside Riley's kennel (thanks Riley!), then I *almost* locked my keys in my car (but I didn't thank goodness!), then I left my car lights on for two hours and killed my battery (THANK YOU ALEX & DUEY!!!!). Being a new mom, doing everything all on my own has fried my brain ;) Once Matt gets home though, my life will be easy as pie.




OOOH on another note, I killed a Hobo spider! It was the nastiest thing EVER! and I'm afraid there is a whole colony of them living in my house and they are going to attack me in my sleep. I hate spiders and I wish they would all die. Poor Jack is going to be extremely, deathly afraid of them. To be totally serious though, I felt like this was a true test of my strength, do you know any other women that would kill a spider this big? Yes I screamed and ran away from it when it started moving, but gosh darn it, I killed it all by myself :)

2 months old!

Today, Jack is two months old! I can't believe it. He is so smiley, alert, and wiggly! He is definitely one cute chunk of a baby :) We had a very fun day today! We went to the farmers market and got some freshly harvested chicken, went to lunch with great grandma Judy, then spent some time with cousin Mason in the pool. So very fun :)

my smiley boy!

He is so happy when he wakes up :)

This past weekend we went to my step-mom's company picnic at Nike world headquarters! It was a lot of fun! There was tons of free food, smoothies, cotton candy, kettle corn, sno cones, rides for kids, live music, and lots of sunshine! It was nice to actually get a little bit of color ;) And Jack was so good! Right before we left he had a big diaper blow out all over my sister Julie, and then about 15 minutes after we got home he had another! So, he has graduated to size 2 diapers now, he is getting to be such a big guy! His 2 month appointment is next week, so I will update his length/weight then :)

Jack is now almost 7 WEEKS OLD! Seriously, where has the time gone? He has really been such a wonderful baby, he is so easy! We start our bedtime routine around 8:30-9pm. I put on "heavenly lullabies" pandora station, run some warm water for a washcloth (unless it's bath night)and give Jack a sponge bath, then I use a tiny bit of aromatherapy lotion by california baby and give him a full body massage. Then I lay him in his bassinet and he is out in five minutes or less! He then sleeps until 2 or 3, I feed him again and he sleeps until 7-8ish. How did I get so blessed with such an easy baby?



This week Jack giggled for the first time! It was after his 2am feeding, he was in bed with me, and I was falling asleep and all of a sudden he just started giggling and smiling, it was so so sweet, I just wish Matt could have been laying there with us.

Jack's Delivery

Sunday June 19th, 2011 is a day that I will never forget. I got a phone call from Matt around 5:30am. He had missed his flight from Florida to Portland. So, I jumped out of bed and called the airlines. We had purchased a flight protection just in case, but it didn't cover missing a flight... So we had to purchase a whole new ticket. This of course was very upsetting, but what was more upsetting is that We were losing a WHOLE day together :( His flight was supposed to get in at 11am, but instead it would now be coming in at 6:00pm. I was so upset! But, oh well. After finally purchasing Matt's ticket and crying for a good hour and a half I went back to bed. The day in and of itself wasn't so bad. I slept off and on, had brunch with my mom, and slept some more. I went to gresham station to walk around a little bit (in hopes of helping induce some contractions, but as far as I could tell, it would be awhile before Jack was coming.) Around 4:30 I went to Matt's Mom's house and spent some time with them. Before I knew it, it was time to pick up my husband, and to be honest I was SUPER nervous! I was only 25ish weeks pregnant the last time I had seen Matt, I was barely showing, and now I was 40 weeks pregnant and HUGE!

picture on the left is a couple weeks before Matt left, and the picture on the right is 6/19/11, the day I picked him up!


Finally at 6pm it was time to see my husband, and it was so amazing to finally see him after what seemed like a lifetime apart. Right after picking him up we met with his dad, step mom and two of his brothers for dinner. All week I had been careful about not eating anything too greasy for fear of going into labor and getting nauseous from a heavy meal. Well, I hadn't been having really any consistent contractions, So Matt and I split a burger and a wrap. I only ate the burger because my uterus was so large my stomach had NO ROOM!

I don't think anyone could have guessed that I would have gone into labor that night based on how I was doing. I seemed completely normal ( aside from being extremely tired and waddling everywhere ;) After dinner we stopped by the hospital to see Matt's sister and brother in law, then we stopped by his mom's house for a few minutes.

Finally, around 9:45ish WE WERE HOME! Riley was ecstatic! Matt started unpacking, but I foolishly told him to not worry about it until morning lol Around 11:30 we finally went to bed, and just 20 minutes later I started feeling contractions. So, I started timing them. They were 3-5 minutes apart. I waited about an hour and a half before saying anything to Matt. Part of me was hoping it was just in my head because I was so exhausted and I wanted to spend some time alone with my husband before Jack got here. During that hour and a half I was in and out of bed, stretching, walking around, tossing and turning in bed, and pacing the house. It finally got to the point where I told Matt it was time to go. He rolled over and smiled at me...he thought I was joking lol So, I waited another 15 minutes and then told him we REALLY needed to go to the hospital!

That night (or morning) felt like such a dream! Not only was my husband home, but I was in labor, just 5 hours after picking him up from the airport!

When we checked into the hospital the nurse, Tina, set up a monitor to time my contractions and to check Jack's heart rate. about 30 minutes later she came back in to let me know I was being admitted and that my contractions were 3-5 minutes apart. She unhooked all of my monitors and put in a hep lock (for an IV). At 3:30 AM I was at 4 cm, and by 5:30am I was at 6-7 (that is fast for a first time labor).

My goal for was for a completely natural labor, no unnecessary medical interventions (no pitocin, epidiral, etc.). This isn't what ended up happening.

Around 8am, my new nurse, Cyndee, came in and let me know that Regis (my midwife) could come around 9ish to break my water and that once that happened Jack should drop and it shouldn't be that long until he is born.


I think this was my biggest mistake, next time I will not have my water broken. Jack was in a posterior position, which means his back was to my back. This caused me to have intsense back labor in addition to my contractions.

From this point on things get a little fuzzy in my memory. I was doing ok while having contractions, not too grouchy ;) but very focused on what I was doing.

I remember being in transition, and SCREAMING for an epidural. It was painful, miserable, and I felt hopeless because labor had stalled. My contractions were overlapping, so it felt as if they were 2 minutes long. To be honest though, looking back, it was one of my favorite parts of labor. The sun was pouring in the room, I think it was 80 degrees that day. I remember being too warm and sweaty and eating a red popsicle between contractions. The only people in the room were Matt, Cyndee and I. And they were the best support I could ask for. They helped me get through those contractions and even though I know it was hard for them they didn't cave in and let me have them. I didn't really want an epidural and they knew that. I think it was around 1pm- 1:30 that I ended up getting an epidural to sleep. I had been fully dilated by 11:30am, but Jack just wasn't dropping, and he wasn't turning!

Regis and Cyndee both let me know that if he had been in the right position, it would have been easier for him to drop and I should have had him by noon, it was nice knowing that I'm capable of going through labor pain med-free.

I remember after getting the epi, falling in and out of sleep. Our room was across the hall from the nursery, so I would hear babies crying and it just made me long for our baby to be born! I was also getting nervous because now his heart rate was getting low during the contractions, and he was low in my birth canal that they couldn't monitor him externally anymore. So, I had to have an internal monitor put in, and I woke up with an oxygen mask. I felt like a failure, this is exactly what I wanted to avoid!

At about 3:30ish my epi was turned off and at about 4 I started pushing. Around 4:30 (im guessing) Regis told me there were two scenarios that could happen. 1. I would need to have a vaccuum assisted birth because Jack's heart rate was getting too low during contractions, and 2. if that didn't work then I would need a c-section.

So, since he wasn't coming we had to try the Vacuum assist. I had only two contractions to try this. The first one didn't work, the OB said that I was pushing really well, but his position made it hard. So, I had only one try left and thankfully with that contraction he was born at 5:06pm!
Seeing Jack for the first time was a moment I will never forget, and I'm so thankful that Matt was able to experience that moment with me too!

* I can't believe it has been almost 6 weeks since Jack was born. It has been an exciting time, and we love being parents. I want to thank my husband, our moms, Amanda Thompson, all of our family that was out in the waiting room all day, and everyone who was praying for us while I was in labor. Your love and support means the world to us!